Rescue on Fractalus! (1985)
Rescue on Fractalus! is a 1985 shooter video game made by Lucasfilm Games and Epyx.
You drop toward an alien planet whose jagged mountains were among the first ever drawn with fractals, and the thick atmosphere lets you see almost nothing. Rescue on Fractalus puts you in a Valkyrie fighter refitted for search and rescue, hunting for downed Ethercorps pilots scattered across the ridges. A direction finder helps when their beacons hide behind rock, and anti-aircraft guns dotting the peaks would rather you did not land. Set down, wait for the pilot to reach the ship, then lift off again. Lucasfilm turns primitive hardware into real dread and real distance.
Quick answers
What is Rescue on Fractalus! about?
You drop toward an alien planet whose jagged mountains were among the first ever drawn with fractals, and the thick atmosphere lets you see almost nothing. Rescue on Fractalus puts you in a Valkyrie fighter refitted for search and rescue, hunting for downed Ethercorps pilots scattered across the ridges. A direction finder helps when their beacons hide behind rock, and anti-aircraft guns dotting the peaks would rather you did not land. Set down, wait for the pilot to reach the ship, then lift off again. Lucasfilm turns primitive hardware into real dread and real distance.
When was Rescue on Fractalus! released?
Rescue on Fractalus! was released on 1 April 1985.
Who made Rescue on Fractalus!?
Rescue on Fractalus! was made by Lucasfilm Games, Epyx and Activision.
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A few thoughts on Rescue on Fractalus!
The lonely cockpit-and-canyon tension has no close cousins here, but Warlords of Sigrdrifa shares the Valkyrie-pilot framing and the pull of flying rescue sorties into hostile skies. Iron Sky: The Coming Race offers the pulpier, effects-forward take on airborne combat over strange terrain.
Fly the cockpit into space combat
Rescue on Fractalus put you in a Valkyrie fighter, diving through an alien atmosphere to pluck downed pilots off the rocks. If that first-person flight thrill is the draw, these carry it forward, from LucasArts' own Star Wars dogfighters to anime and film built around pilots and hardware.
Trace the LucasArts adventure line
This early Lucasfilm Games release came from the studio that would define the adventure genre. To follow that lineage from an arcade rescue to storytelling milestones, these are the LucasArts classics that turned the same house into the name behind Monkey Island and Grim Fandango.